My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE. Ο ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΜΕΣΩ ΗΜΩΝ! ΚΑΙ ΗΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΑΙ.
WHAT THE CROSS MEANS FOR CHRISTIANS
"O Invincible and incomprehensible and divine power of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross, forsake not us sinners." (From the order of Great Compline)
The Cross is the mighty and profound symbol of Christianity, a symbol whose meaning is inexhaustible. The eight-pointed Cross is the symbol of Orthodoxy.
Gazing upon the Cross with his mind and heart, the Christian goes deeper into the symbol and grows spiritually. Just as a plant needs fertile soil, moisture, and sunlight in order to grow, so a Christian needs the Cross of Christ in his spiritual and physical life, for the Cross of Christ provides him with nourishment, drink, warmth, and light.
Does everyone know what the Cross is for Christians? Does everyone understand that the depth of meaning and substance of the Christian symbol is truly inexhaustible? Let us attempt to concentrate a bit in order to piously reflect on the Cross, on that same Cross which the Hoy Church brings out for veneration.
Our difficult, awful, evil, hurried time does not allow us to focus our concentration. People crave entertainment, a variety of experiences, productions, ideas, feelings, and actions. The Cross calls us toward the opposite. In it there is no movement, no change, no external variation. The Cross demands that we concentrate our attention upon the depths of the soul. Thus, in its simplicity, stillness, and silence, its infinite substance and bottomless depth of meaning opens up to us.
The clearest evidence of the victorious power of the Cross of Christ was demonstrated in Emperor Constantine the Great's seeing a brilliant shining Cross in a clear, cloudless sky, and hearing the words "In this (sign) you shall conquer" or Greek "En touto Nika").
The Cross also grants healing. In the Old Testament, the bronze serpent, which prefigured the Cross, healed all those who had been bitten by the deadly serpents sent by God as punishment for the Hebrews' complaining. If a prototype of the Cross held such healing power, how much more powerfully does the Cross of Christ itself heal! From ancient times and still today, the Orthodox Christian Church has considered the Holy Cross a great defense against all disease, whether physical or spiritual. This is why since antiquity Christians have worn the Cross on their breast. To wear such a Cross was considered to be:
1) a confession that you were a Christian, and
2) a defense, "to ward off any evil."
Even today, one often sees written on Crosses to be worn on the breast, the words, "O Lord Save and Protect (me)!" When a priest blesses such a Cross, he prays that it might be "for him that shall bear it on himself may it be for a saving defense and preservation against every evil of soul and body and for the increase of Thy spiritual gifts and Christian virtues" and that it might be filled with "Thy power and strength for the repulsion and dispelling of every snare of the devil," and be "the preservation of soul and body from the face of enemies visible and invisible and from every evil." (Supplemental Book of Needs).
In the Canon "To the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross" composed by Saint Gregory of Sinai, the Orthodox Church sings out... "O Cross! Be unto me the might, the strength and the power, the deliverer and foremost defender against my assailants, the shield and protector, my victory and establishment, ever preserving and sheltering me." "O Cross...as a three-edged sword thou dost cut off the principles of darkness, being the great weapon of Christ and an invincible and all-powerful trophy of victory..." For the Cross is "the symbol of the Incomprehensible Trinity, the Life-bearers."
The Cross is a great, invincible weapon that conquers all. However, one needs to know how to use the weapon, that power. For even an ordinary weapon, a firearm or other weapon, can be an impotent one in the hands of someone inexperienced, and can even be a danger to the one who wields it. The invincible and almighty power of the Cross becomes so, and is conditional upon faith and piety. One cannot use the power of the Cross, one cannot utilize it as a weapon in the absence of faith and piety, for it is a weapon of the Holy Truth of Christ. One must not make the sign of the Cross over oneself or others without faith and piety.
The enemies of the Cross are the enemies of Christ.
The Cross is first of all the symbol of our salvation. In signing ourselves with the sign of the Cross, we pray to God the Father through His Son's Cross (when we say the Lord's Prayer) or to our Savior. God the Son Himself through the Cross of His Golgotha (when we address prayers to the Lord Jesus Christ), or to God the Holy Spirit (in the prayer "O Heavenly King...")--again through the Savior's Cross, through the Cross by which He acquired the right to send us the Comforter. Signing oneself with the sign of the Cross has particular meaning when praying for forgiveness and salvation, for we cannot be forgiven or saved on account of any personal merits, no matter how great they might be! It is only thanks to the Passion of Christ, at the price of His Precious Blood, and only after our repentance and the fruits of repentance, that we dare hope in forgiveness and salvation. Such is the primary profound meaning of signing oneself with the sign of the Cross. If we comprehend that, how can we possibly make the sign of the Cross carelessly?
The Holy Cross is the most-powerful, almighty source of comfort and strength in times of sorrow, despondency, and despair. The Holy Cross is the last hope of those who despair, and it never puts to shame those who have hope. It is enough but to imagine the Savior Crucified, and with only a tiny corner of your heart to intend to repeat, and immediately, without delay, the Savior sends His almighty help. Countless numbers of people have been saved from committing suicide because, for just a moment, they turned their thoughts in faith to the crucified Savior.
It was from the Cross that the prayer for forgiveness of enemies went forth.
It was from the Cross that the repentant wise thief was granted mercy.
It was from the Cross that the Holy Apostle John the Theologian (and with him, all faithful Christians) was adopted by the Most-Holy Theotokos, the hope that cannot be put to shame of those without hope.
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"--Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George